Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy
USS Jupiter’s Transformation into America’s First Aircraft Carrier
In 1920, a humble coal ship named USS Jupiter got a new job. The Navy took her to Norfolk Naval Shipyard and cut her open like a tin can.
Workers bolted a 534-foot wooden deck on top, turned coal holds into plane hangars, and added the Navy’s first ship elevator. When she came out in 1922, Jupiter had a new name too – USS Langley.
That October, Lt. Virgil Griffin took off from her deck in the York River, and days later, Lt. Cmdr. Chevalier stuck the first landing…